Archive for March, 2009

It’s been many moons since I’ve posted and I apologize. Life has been busy. Great, but busy. I’ve been contemplating for a while how best to organize this blog. You see, I have a lot of projects and varying facets which comprise my life. I’ve wanted to keep this blog annonymous and focus simply on design, color, food, and craft. But I’m leaving out a very large aspect of my life: I am a professional theatre actress. I’m often swept away into rehearsals and performances and disappear off the face of the earth to anyone not working on the show. My main focus is”New Works”, meaning: new plays. I’m integrally involved with a number of theatre companies in the Bay Area devoted to the development of new works of theatre and it’s, well, a labor of love and is ENDLESSLY fascinating and vital. Many people don’t know this about me and don’t quite understand the process. I’m learning to admit that I am TERRIBLE at keeping people abreast of all the projects I’m a part of– because, I don’t know– I don’t want to guilt anyone into caring. And, well, people understand big, Broadway, musical theatre shows but they don’t quite realize what it takes to get there…it takes months and years of workshopping plays with actors and playwrights and directors coming together and putting all of their creative energy into refining the piece of theatre. So when people ask what I’m working on the question is always complicated: I’m working A LOT.

So as I sat on stage last night performing a new piece of theatre with a script in my hand, before an audience of captivated people, the New York playwright sitting steps away (taking notes and changing the script only moments before going on stage) I felt such pride in what I do, and it’s time that I actually let people know. Because, well, live theatre is nine million times better than staring at another hour of mediocre TV. I work tirelessly and juggle so many jobs to do this. And just because I am not in New York on Broadway or in LA on some TV show does not mean I am not doing something really wonderful, vital…and yes, I feel like a huge ‘success’, even if strangers don’t know my name. I pinch myself on the days I get to wake -up and go to rehearsal in the morning and someone is PAYING me to do so. It is such a treat.

So, in the spirit of openness and creativity, I am going to try to post all my current theatre projects on this blog as well. I’m not sure if anyone reads this, but at least when I am asked “oh, are you in anything?”, I can refer them here. So, here is a look at the projects of the past couple weeks:

Join us this evening for a professionally staged reading of The Little Tramp written by Lynne Kaufman of the Playwrights’ Lab and directed by Robert Kelley.

About the play: He was once the most famous film star in the world – and then came ‘talkies’. And charges of unamericanism and a nasty paternity suit. From poorhouse to mansion….multiple romances to one great love….traitor to hero….dismal failures and great successes….

Julia Jarcho is a playwright, director, and performer. Her plays include The Whole Tree (Electric) (In The Rough Reading Series, 2008), Take Me Away (Il faut brûler pour briller festival, Paris, 2007), A Small Hole (Performance Lab 115, FringeNYC, 2006), All I Do Is Dream of You (Sophiensaele and English Theatre Berlin, 2006), The Highwayman (NTUSA performance space, Brooklyn, 2004; published in The Best American Short Plays of 2005-2006, Applause Books), and Nursery (Young Playwrights Festival, Cherry Lane Theater, New York, 2001). She was a writer-in-residence at the 2002 Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference and won a Berrilla Kerr award the same year. She is now a 2008-2009 Resident Playwright at the Playwrights Foundation, a board member of Young Playwrights Inc., and a member of the New York-based playwrights’ collective 13P. Her new play American Treasure will be produced by 13P in Fall 2009, with the support of Creative Capital.

In the Rough is a series of developmental readings that seeks to give playwrights the opportunity to hear first drafts of new work, to fine tune nearly finished play approaching a production or commission deadline, and to make connections with producers. In the Rough is a partnership with Lark Play Development Center in New York City, and the National Center for New Plays at Stanford University.

In the ROUGH ’09Get all the info here!
Read the ROUGH press release.
Click here for a larger version of the publicity card below.